AUBURN HILLS -- Apparently it doesn't matter if it's after midnight or in the middle of the day -- high profile athletes had better watch their backs.

The latest incident involved Hawks forward Shelden Williams. He got carjacked outside a barber shop in Atlanta Saturday afternoon.
He was not hurt, but his car was stolen at gunpoint.

"In light of recent events going on around the country, we're thankful everything turned out the way it did," Hawks spokesman Arthur Triche told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "We're happy that Shelden was able to walk away from this situation unscathed, and they were able to recover his goods and the suspects were apprehended."

The Pacers' Jamaal Tinsley was involved in a shooting incident last week. He wasn't hit, but one of the team's trainers was. The Sean Taylor murder happened two weeks before that. Over the summer, both Antoine Walker and Eddy Curry had their Chicago-area homes broken into. Last year, Flip Murray was followed home by an armed man who intended to rob him.

That is just a partial list of athletes who've been victimized.
Scary times, indeed.

"All these gold chains and things," Pacers president Larry Bird told David Aldridge of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Guys are making a lot more money than they used to. They're driving fancier cars. When you pull into a parking lot with a $200,000, $300,000 car, people notice. We used to run around a little bit back in the day, but people are more jealous now."

James, who rarely travels alone, said he knows how to handle himself in public.

"Every NBA player has had a situation where he was followed," he said. "You don't drive home. You turn a different way. If you have fast cars like I have, you're not going to catch me. I have a Cane Corso (large guard dog), too. If you catch me, you'll have to face him. That will be a tough challenge."

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Here is a picture of a Cane Corso. A lap dog? I think not.

The Cane Corso is an extremely large, lean molosser-type dog. It is well muscled and looks more athletic than most other mastiffs, tending less toward sheer bulk (i.e, like the English Mastiff and more towards defintion i.e., like the original Old English Bulldog. The official FCI standard calls for dogs to stand from 60-68 centimeters at the withers (23.6-26.7 inches), with %%%%%es in the lower region and dogs in the higher. Weight should be in keeping with the size and stature of these dogs, ranging from 40-50 kg (88-110lbs). The overall impression should be of power balanced with athleticism.